"So what is it that concerns you boy?", said Tooke.
Robyn could not find the words - which was very unusual for him.
"This is personal and privy to me alone ... I am not of your ways, nor need be."
"But what harm can come of it I say? That is of course,” he added with a smile, "if there is a soul in there to be saved." He tapped on Robyn’s chest while saying this.
"Well thank God you be smiling. Had it not occurred to his holiness, that you might just dissolve me altogether with your Christ-shone magics?"
The monk would not have this. Tooke's smiling eyes did their best to pierce Robyn's own, with meaning.
"Under God, you and I are the same with spirit - and with His Love. I do not doubt it, and neither should you."
"If that be true then", returned Robyn, "why then the need for baptism at all? I still can't grasp your enchantments!"
"There are many paths and although not a shortcut, it is at the very least, a straightforward one. I sit with your Elvin Council, why then can you not indulge me with this one ask?"
Brother Tooke read his expression as consent and said:
"It is with love that I say this to thee brother." And then he backed up a few paces, rolled his baggy sleeves up to the elbows and ran powerfully towards Robyn ending with a head butt to the chest - which was just enough to make him buckle. He then lifted him high, heaved him over his shoulder, running fast the fifteen paces towards the river, which lay, not far beside them.
"In the name of the Son, the Father, and the all-pervading most Holy Ghost“ he threw Robyn in, and jumped on him, dragging him down beneath the muddy water.
"Welcome! To the Order of Man and the Benevolence of the Christhood and its sanctity within our blessed Church!"
"Well, glad I am that that dialogue is now over" Robyn said, caught by the humour of it and that he had in fact, not dissolved in body or soul. He knew also that the monk never really did anything for mirth alone. Tooke was a practical man spiritually - and as far as he was concerned, everything had its purpose, and that purpose was always good.
As Tooke lay on the grassy bank drying himself in the sun, Robyn took a flying leap, then hurled him back into the river again.
"It is only just my friend, that I should baptise thee!" he shouted as he had thrown him into the water's arms - narrowly missing the bulging boulders besides.